eCommerce Replatforming Checklist – Key Steps for a Successful Migration

To keep their demand, eCommerce businesses prefer moving to a robust and scalable platform and re-platforming, which many businesses should face at some point due to the competition and evolving world. If your existing website is slow and doesn’t keep up with your business requirements and spending more money and time on maintaining it, then it’s time for you to re-platform it. In this article, we will learn about ecommerce re-platforming, Its types, checklist, and importance.

What is eCommerce Replatforming?

eCommerce Replatforming is like moving your physical store from one location to another to improve your business. Replatforming is an expensive, Complex, and long process which includes moving your online data like blog posts, Orders, and customer data and the transition of products to a new Customer Data Platform (CDP).

Types Of eCommerce Replatforming

Platform to Platform: This includes changing from one ecommerce solution to another with more integrations or features, and this switch could be between SaaS, cloud, or on-premise solutions.

Monolithic to Microservices: This is an easy process that allows you to layer third-party apps and platforms on each other to cover all types of product journeys or customers. eCommerce stores under a headless commerce model will mostly consider this process.

Phased Migration: In this process, the transition occurs step-by-step and doesn’t happen simultaneously.

The Challenges of Replatforming

Every small and large business faces obstacles when switching from an old ecommerce platform to an enterprise-level one. Moving as soon as possible is important to be on the top competitor’s list.

Switching to an enterprise is expensive: For most small to medium-sized businesses, it will be difficult to switch to an enterprise because the average cost will be around $500,000 to $1 million without including license fees, hiring the team, and other investments.

The migration takes too long: It is mostly unworkable for many mid-market brands because the minimum time to switch for small to medium-sized businesses will be 12 to 18 months.

System integrators failures: Sometimes, businesses feel that their system integrators take longer to transfer the data, so they stop their migration efforts, costing them money and time.

New systems can be complicated: Challenges like ETL processing and API limitations will limit businesses from using their new ecommerce platform.

It would be best to compare every option to migrate your online store to a whole new enterprise level and choose the best for your business. You need to re-platform the ecommerce business once you catch up to the industry or meet customer satisfaction.

Why Is eCommerce Replatforming Important?

If you feel that there is a lot of money and time getting invested in maintaining the staff and system maintenance, and realize that the website, which worked well enough, started to slow down the business, you need to switch from the old online store to the new one which has better features and integrations. But, Replatforming is more challenging. It involves a huge investment of time and money and the decisions of stakeholders, and you also need to foresee the improvements after re-platforming your online store. Here are some ways to determine whether re-platforming applies to your business.

How to Determine?

Your Present Online Store is Slow: A fast-loading online store is important to enhance the customer’s shopping experience. According to the survey, If the site is not responding within three seconds, 40% of the shoppers leave the site.
Long-standing Issues: Many businesses face complicated issues that can be rectified only by re-platforming. These issues affect the work of the team as well as the shopping experience of the customers. Replatforming can help you solve the issues.

Exhausted Team Due to Outdated Site: poor backend navigation will slow down your team and costs you extra money. A more advanced system will be for your team to achieve more in less time.

Gaps Between Administrative Process and Frontend Ability: Headless ecommerce platforms can be considered if your brand faces this major shortfall.

Expensive Maintenance and Time-consuming: You Need to re-platform if you don’t see the ROI like before because your debts and maintenance costs are rising, and paying for the features which are not useful at all.

Frustrated Customers: The priority of any online business should be the shopping experience, and customers should not be bored due to lack of responsiveness, slow or too many plugins, etc.; by migrating the platform, you can enhance the user experience of your website.

Unorganized Analytics: Your website should have easy access to collect and preserve the data of the customers and product history. This helps in measuring your progress. A new platform should be considered if your old site lacks this feature.

Existing Site Doesn’t Adapt to New Apps and Integrations: Switching to an ecommerce platform compatible with the extensions and plugins your online store needs is a solution to address this issue.

Lack of Product Page Optimization. With the help of a new ecommerce platform, we can reach ideal customers and increase conversion rates by optimizing the product pages.

eCommerce Replatforming Checklist

We know that re-platforming is time-consuming and requires many steps to be followed. The following is the re-platforming checklist to be observed.

• List out the drawbacks and issues of your existing ecommerce platform.
• List the benefits and requirements you wanted in your new ecommerce platform.
• Get teams and stakeholders to join the platform.
• Allocate budget for every team and the project as a whole.
• Research and create a shortlist of viable ecommerce platforms.
• Plan demos with top ecommerce platform choices.
• Select an ecommerce platform that suits your requirements.
• Back up the data of the old ecommerce stores.
• Download a data migration app or opt for data migration services.
• On a new ecommerce platform, design an ecommerce site.
• Migrate old ecommerce data to the new platform.
• Connect the checkout platform and optimize the design.
• Pair plugins, extensions, and integrations.
• Inspect your site for SEO, and set up meta and URLs.
• Test your entire online store for design, performance, and structure.
• Provide Training for your team to use the new store.
• Communicate and let customers know about the platforming.
• Your new ecommerce store can be launched.

Conclusion

In conclusion, re-platforming an ecommerce website is a complex and important process that requires careful planning and execution. Businesses can effectively evaluate their current platform, identify drawbacks and opt for re-platforming, which helps further business development and retain shoppers.

Are you a business seeking to upgrade your eCommerce platform for enhanced performance and functionality? Look no further! Request a FREE demo today by submitting your project details through the form below. Our team of experts will guide you through the seamless migration process, ensuring a smooth transition to a better eCommerce solution tailored to your specific needs. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to take your online business to new heights. Submit your project details now and experience the future of eCommerce!